Grainger: Reengineering the China/U.S. Supply ChainW. W. Grainger, Inc., is a leading supplier of maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) products to businesses and institutions in theUnited States, Canada, and Mexico, with an expanding presence in Japan, India, China, and Panama. The company works with morethan 5,000 suppliers and runs an extensive website (www.grainger.com) where Grainger offers nearly 1.5 million products. Theproducts range from industrial adhesives used in manufacturing, to hand tools, janitorial supplies, lighting equipment, and power tools.When something is needed by one of its customers, it is often needed quickly, so quick service and product availability are key driversto Grainger's success.Your assignment involves studying U.S. distribution in Grainger's supply chain. Grainger works with over 250 suppliers in the Chinaand Taiwan region. These suppliers produce products to Grainger's specifi cations and ship to the United States using ocean freightcarriers from four major ports in China and Taiwan. From these ports, product is shipped to U.S. entry ports in either Seattle,Washington, or Los Angeles, California. After passing through customs, the 20- and 40-foot containers are shipped by rail to Grainger'scentral distribution center in Kansas City, Kansas. The containers are unloaded and quality is checked in Kansas City. From there,individual items are sent to regional warehouses in nine U.S. locations, a Canada site, and Mexico.Grainger: U.S. DistributionIn the United States approximately 40 percent of the containers enter in Seattle, Washington, and 60 percent at the Los Angeles,California, port. Containers on arrival at the port cities are inspected by federal agents and then loaded onto rail cars for movement tothe Kansas City distribution center. Variable costs for processing at the port are $7.00 per cubic meter (CBM) in both Los Angeles andSeattle. The rate for shipping the containers to Kansas City is $0.0018 per CBM per mile.In Kansas City the containers are unloaded and processed through a quality assurance check. This costs $6.00 per CBM processed. Avery small percentage of the material is actually sent back to the supplier, but errors in quantity and package size are often found thatrequire accounting adjustments.Items are stored in the Kansas City distribution center, which serves nine warehouses in the United States. Items are also sent towarehouses in Canada and Mexico, but for the purposes of this study we focus on the United States. The nine warehouses each placeorders at the distribution center that contains all the items to be replenished. Kansas City picks each item on the order, consolidatesthe items onto pallets, and ships the items on 53-foot trucks destined to each warehouse. Truck freight costs $0.0218 per CBM permile. The demand forecasts for the items purchased from China/Taiwan for next year in cubic meters and shipping distances are givenin the following table.DEMAND (CBM)WAREHOUSEKansas CityClevelandNewarkJacksonvilleAVERAGEDISTANCESMILES FROM KANSAS CITY MILES FROM LOS ANGELES MILES FROM SEATTLE20,89001,6501,80017,1008302,3802,31024,7301,2302,7302,75015,1201,1702,4802,950Chicago22,8704701,9801,990Greenville15,1209702,3702,950Memphis17,1504601,7802,370Dallas22,8704501,4202,160Los Angeles34,1001,650e1,140Total189,950 Although a high percentage of demand was from warehouses either south or east of Kansas City, the question has surfacedconcerning the 34,100 CBM (approximately 18 percent of the total volume) that will be shipped to Kansas City and then shipped backto the Los Angeles warehouse. This double-transportation could potentially be eliminated if a new distribution center were built in LosAngeles. The idea might be to ship material arriving at the Seattle port by rail to a new Los Angeles distribution center, which would belocated at the current location of the Los Angeles warehouse.It is estimated that the Los Angeles facility could be upgraded at a one-time cost of $1,500,000 and then operated for $350,000 peryear. In the new Los Angeles distribution center, containers would be unloaded and processed through a quality assurance check, justas is now done in Kansas City. The variable cost for doing this would be $7.00 per CBM processed, which includes the cost to movethe containers from the Los Angeles port to the distribution center.After the material is processed in Los Angeles, the amount needed to replenish the Los Angeles warehouse (34,100 CBM per year onaverage) would be kept and the rest sent by rail to Kansas City. It would then be directly stocked in the Kansas City distribution centerand used to replenish the warehouses. They expect that very little would need to be shipped back to the Los Angeles warehouse afterthe new system was operating for about six months.Grainger management feels that it may be possible to make this change, but they are not sure if it would actually save any money andwhether it would be a good strategic change.*The data in this case have been developed for teaching purposes and do not represent the actual situation at Grainger. The data,though, are representative of an actual problem that Grainger and similar companies must address to efficiently run the supply chain.Relative to the U.S. distribution network, calculate the cost associated with running the existing system. Assume that 40 percent of thevolume arrives in Seattle and 60 percent in Los Angeles and the port processing fee for federal processing at both locations is $7.00per CBM. Assume that everything is transferred to the Kansas City distribution center by rail, where it is unloaded and quality checked.Assume that all volume is then transferred by truck to the nine existing warehouses in the United States. (Do not round intermediatecalculations and round your answers to the nearest whole number.)

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Variable costs for processing at the port are $5.00 per cubic meter (CBM) in both Los Angeles and…